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Training 1.- How to

innovate successfully in

an international context Additional materials

The VIDA project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement nº 777795.

Disclaimer

The content of this document represents the view of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility: it cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission and/or the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME). The European Commission and the Agency do not accept responsibility for the use that may be made of the information it contains.


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Content

1. Environments for boosting the collaboration in VIDA regions ................................................... 2

2. How to build a trustworthy environment .................................................................................... 2

3. How to write a good proposal .................................................................................................... 3

4. Next steps in case of no success .............................................................................................. 3

5. Good practices in VIDA awarded projects................................................................................. 4

6. Water Alliance ........................................................................................................................... 6

7. BalticNet PlasmaTech ............................................................................................................... 7

8. Cluster for the efficient use of water – ZINNAE ........................................................................ 8


Chapter 1 Summay of the online training

course


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1. Environments for boosting the collaboration in VIDA regions

Clusters provide added value to SMEs, as they provide easy access to markets of interest to the

client SMEs, provide additional support in building innovation capacity, information on finance

opportunities and finding (launching) customers.

Moreover, there are numerous networks that support businesses, some are more general in

scope, other have a specific industry they focus on. Learn about how those networks and

organizations can be beneficial to you.

2. How to build a trustworthy environment

What is actually needed in order to build a trustworthy environment with international partners,

stakeholders, shareholder, peers, family and friends? Simply speaking you use common sense,

and in the InnoSup VIDA project we have experience and possibility to share our knowledge from

successful projects. The classic perception and often the most common mistake is that you tend

to assume that everyone is similar to you, is honest, communicates and have more or less the

same goals as you, which is why we often tend to prefer working with likeminded people. We

strongly advice to have an open mind in the working environment and differentiate with different

partners. Pay attention to the goals; make sure that they are achievable, and you have the right

motivation for you and the partners in order to be successful. This also counts for the ongoing

levelling of expectations, which can never be done too often and it is always best to consider

writing them down instead of verbally levelling of expectations, which has a risk for being

misinterpreted. Use the tools available, which could be for example, LoI’s, NDA’s, collaboration

agreements like the consortium agreement and that we currently have at free disposition for the

companies to download and utilize. They only need to log-in on the website to gain access to the

templates on. http://cleansolutions.dk/da/toolkit/

Organise yourself with different tools that are available. Utilise the tools available that you feel

comfortable with and would most likely include written agendas for the meetings and send out

before in order for documents to read by the participants beforehand. Send out minutes with

decision points and next steps. Utilizing of Grantt charts can come in handy. If you enhance

brainstorming and kindly make sure that the people also understand the scope and the conditions

of the sessions. Give priority to building a trustworthy environment is often a very important part.

Usually for 99% for the cases it will be the money that the partners will earn that has a clear

priority, however also making sure, if possible, that the people or partners are not overloaded.

Keep a Plan B organised, just in case something does not go as planned. Remember to reach


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out for scaling the opportunities, which can you contribute to the innovation and successful

environment and, if shared, a higher ROI for everyone. Create an environment where successes

are celebrated and always keep a budget for combining business and social gatherings. If you

want stronger and more innovative possibilities, keep in mind to work hard, communicate,

motivate, organise and structure work with a range of diversified people that will enhance and

create the better environment with more innovative results

When working or building an international consortium (either for an EU project or a commercial

project) the following issues are key:

Be transparent – be clear about what you can offer and about your motivation. This helps

setting clear expectations among all partners.

Be honest – Do not cheat. Honesty can be hard and might be difficult at moments, but it

helps in building the credibility of your organization as project partner.

Keep an open mind – Every project is different moreover there can be cultural differences

between partners that could make collaboration more difficult, keeping an open mind may

help overcome those issues.

3. How to write a good proposal

It needs to match your objectives. Do not just do it for the money

Select and prioritise – there are multiple programmes, setting priorities and objectives

helps you identify the most relevant programmes

Find support that could be helpful, e.g. clusters, governmental bodies, consultancy

agencies.

Start on time and prepare well. Solid preparation is key

Focus on the benefits to the EU, rather than the benefits to your company

Submitting a proposal for the first time, register with the European Commission to receive

your PIC code, this can take up to 5 weeks.

4. Next steps in case of no success

Learn from the feedback and or contact your local or national contact point. For EU

subsidies the national government has often so called NCP’s that can provide you with

all necessary information.

Find out about other funding scheme’s that might welcome your proposal.

Don’t forget about the good part. You will learn from the feedback but most importantly,

building a consortium expands your network and may help your business also outside

the scope of a European project.


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5. Good practices in VIDA awarded projects

Make sure you meet the criteria, such as TRL level and a clear benefit to the Food value

chain.

Be clear about your project and objectives, timeline, role of partners and outcomes.

Provide suitable arguments supporting your application. Have in mind that you are

presenting an innovative solution and the evaluators maybe do not deeply know these

solutions.

Answer the questions. The questions provide guidance and are linked to the evaluation

criteria, use all the space provided in the forms for explain each paragraph. Answering

the questions thus increases your chances on a sufficient scoring. It is also very important

to pay special attention to the budget, detail the information and consider the budget

requirements.

Cross-regional consortia tend to write more successful proposals than purely regional or

national consortia. Looking for relevant partners outside your direct network may pay off

– you can ask your local cluster for support.

Cross-sectoral: VIDA will award projects that bring solutions to the water-energy

efficiency challenges on the food sector, also promoting the KET integration for these

solutions.

VIDA Calls Tips:

Look for the support to have an external reader to revise that your proposal is clearly

written.

Pay special attention to the TRL explanation: provide enough evidence to prove that the

technology is at a TRL level between 6 to 8 at the beginning of the project.

Bring solutions to the food sector challenges. Check the challenges that the VIDA project

has identified.

62% of the awarded projects were cross-regional, but building a cross-regional

consortium only makes sense in case of adding value.

https://vidaproject.eu/vida-voucher-scheme/vida-challenges/


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Chapter 2 Best pactices in VIDA clusters


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6. Water Alliance

The Water Alliance is a unique partnership of public and private companies, government agencies

and knowledge institutes involved in water technology in the Netherlands. The Water Alliance

focuses on innovative and sustainable water technology that can be used worldwide. It brings

together a complete chain of innovation for water technology, from first idea, research &

development, specialised laboratories, a water application centre, various demosites, launching

customers to international applications with commercial companies. Indeed from knowledge to

business. It is driven by the idea that technological development and innovation is needed to

develop new markets and thus create new business opportunities for the water technology

industry. In this way the Netherlands will become the European Water Technology Hub, with its

focal point at the WaterCampus Leeuwarden.

Best Practice #1 Active support of innovative technologies

In order to support the companies with the most innovative technologies in the Netherlands in

their business development, Water Alliance has established the Water Alliance Innovation

Stimulation Award (WIS Award). This award gives the winning company a full year support worth

€ 10.000,- in promotion and business development. Every year the 10 most innovative

technologies will compete in a 2-stage competition. During the competition Water Alliance

promotes all 10 technologies. In the first stage the companies compete for the votes of their peer

water tech entrepreneurs during a pitch round at a major water tech event in the Netherlands.

After this vote, the five technologies/companies with the most votes will go to stage 2. In the

second stage, the 5 finalists will pitch their technologies again, this time for peers as well as an

jury of experts with a track record in science and business. The vote of the jury and the votes of

the water tech entrepreneurs (each 50 per cent) will decide the winner of the WIS-Award. Over

the years, the WIS Award has grown into an important award focussing specifically on innovative

technologies developed by SME’s.

Best Practice #2 Extending networks and business opportunities through cluster collaboration

Clusters in different regions know the key challenges in their region. The Water Alliance has been

working together with a Korean cluster to bring companies together. A specific example is the

case of a company in the monitoring industry (Company X).

Over several years Water Alliance has established a good connection with the Korean water

cluster. During a visit of the Business Development manager to Korea, he was informed about a

company facing monitoring issues. Seeing opportunities for Company X, the BD manager asked

for a meeting with the Korean company to whom he pitched company X. Following the pitch by

the BD manager, there was much interest in more information on the company. After several


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exchanges and support from the Water Alliance, the CEOs of the Korean and Dutch company

met to discuss further collaboration.

This is just one of the many examples of how the networks of clusters can reinforce the

opportunities for companies in both cluster’s networks

7. BalticNet PlasmaTech

BalticNet-PlasmaTec (BNPT) is an international cluster since the foundation (German-Polish

cooperation) in 2006. Since then, more than 70 members from 17 different countries joint the

cluster. So in total BalticNet-PlasmaTec has partners in 17 different countries mostly in Europe

but also in Brazil, India and Russia. With the help of these members, BNPT can offer

internationalisation services to all these countries. The services including: contact to companies,

R&D institutes, universities and stakeholder; information about possible funding in the countries;

local contact partner and organising fair visits.

Furthermore, BNPT together with 3 other cluster (Nanoprogress, InovCluster, Plastiwin)

established in 2018 an European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG) in Prague, Czech Republic.

A European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG) is a type of legal entity of the European corporate

law and it is designed to make it easier for companies in different countries to do business together

or to form consortia to take part in EU programmes. The main aim of the EEIG is to reinforcing

international cluster cooperation to better support SME access to global value chains. The vision

of the EEIG is to combine different experiences, know-how and value chains in order to boost

business and innovation. The mission is to run a sustainable EEIG with high added value services

for SMEs and innovation actors and engage them into long-term business and R&D cooperation

with partners and consumers from Europe. These are the services:

• Access to funding

• Finding cooperation partners

• Help to enter new markets

• Motivational and awareness-raising seminars for internationalisation & internationalisation

training.

• Market intelligence.

• Fact-finding missions.

• Providing the access to the international cross sectoral collaboration platform.


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• Trade missions.

• Peer mentoring programme.

• SME direct support.

• Creation and support of working groups focused on specific target market.

• Means to support the internationalisation of cluster's affiliated SMEs.

• Supporting the preparation and implementation of the Internationalization strategy.

• Collaboration with government bodies.

• Funding and other opportunities.

8. Cluster for the efficient use of water – ZINNAE

ZINNAE, the cluster for the efficient use of water is a non-profit association that works to offer

solutions to water security challenges in order to build a sustainable and resilient future, working

under the principles of the circular economy and intelligent society. The organization integrates

40 full members (60% SME), including the most innovative and active entities related to water

sector in the north-east Spanish region of Aragón, considering the quadruple-helix: companies

(manufacturers and suppliers involved in all the water value chain) research and education

centers, and local, regional and national public administrations, such as Zaragoza City Council

and the Ebro river Basin Authority.

ZINNAE participated in the design of the RIS3 Strategy that highlights three priority areas of

action: Resource efficiency; Quality of life (Food&Health) and Sustainable Mobility. Aragonese

Clusters headquarters is based in the European Center for Enterprises and Innovation, based in

the Engineering Campus of the University of Zaragoza; supported by the Regional development

agency, the eight regional clusters share a co-working area to encourage networking and

innovative collaboration. ZINNAE and the Aragonese Regional Government launched in October

2018 the Thematic Area “Water Smart Territories” for industrial modernization with the leading

support of two other regions Centre Val de Loire (France) and Fryesland (The Netherlands) in the

For boosting the networking and collaboration between their partners, Zinnae is organized in 3

workshops, (periodically developed 1-2 per year) that aim to promote the innovation and

internationalization of its partners also promoting their collaboration.

Internationalization and business development: The aim of this workshop is to define and

develop activities that increase the international business of ZINNAE partners, both

companies and R&D&i centres.


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Innovation commission: its purpose is to identify and develop innovative projects between

its partners. Within the framework of this commission the main private and public calls for

R&D, will be monitored.

Communication commission: This commission works to promote the visibility of its

partners, highlight the relevance of the water sector and identify its main areas of work in

each moment.

In addition to these activities, ZINNAE organized every year (October-November) its Strategic

Immersion Workshop, which objective is to tackle and discuss relevant issues for the water sector,

and strategic areas of work in water management.


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Chapter 3 Title of the Chapter


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